The 12th National Games for Persons with Disabilities and the 9th National Special Olympic Games will be held in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao from December 8th to 15th. As a core component of the event, Paralympic classification will be conducted for more than 1,300 athletes, with one classification center and 16 classification sites set up by the Organizing Committee.

Unlike events for able-bodied athletes, athletes at the Paralympics and Special Olympics must undergo professional classification and evaluation before events. They are grouped by the degree of impairment to ensure fair competition. Take swimming as an example, athletes are divided into groups for physical, vision, intellectual, and hearing impairments. There are ten different sport classes for athletes with physical impairment, numbered 1-10 (with 1 being the most severe and 10 the least). Athletes with a vision impairment are classified from S/SB11 to S/SB13, while those with intellectual or hearing impairments are classified as S/SB14 and S/SB15 respectively. Consequently, the number of medals awarded at the Paralympics and Special Olympics far exceeds that of the National Games.

The classification center for this year is located in the east area of the Guangdong Olympic Sports Center Stadium. It will provide classification services for athletes with vision, hearing, and intellectual impairments from six events in the competition venues in Guangzhou and four events in the competition venues in Guangdong. A total of 60 classifiers will carry out evaluations at the center. The competition venues in Guangzhou are responsible for the classification of 780 athletes, with about 650 at the classification center and 130 at the classification sites. A working team of 44 members has been established to support the classification process, and 120 specialized classification volunteers have been selected and trained, with 50 assisting at the classification center.

Currently, hardware facilities and temporary functional rooms in the classification center have been completed. The ambient atmosphere has been created, and special classification equipment has been installed, marking the full readiness of classification preparations.

2025残特奥会共有1300多名运动员进行分级，为何要分级？

2025残特奥会将于12月8日至15日在粤港澳举办，运动分级作为赛事核心环节，本届需为1330名运动员开展分级工作，组委会设1个分级中心及16个分级点。

与健全人赛事不同，残特奥会运动员赛前需经专业分级评估，按残疾程度划分级别，保障公平竞争。以游泳项目为例，分肢体、视力、智力、听力残疾组别，肢体残疾分1-10级（1级最重、10级最轻），视力残疾分11-13级，智力、听力残疾符合要求者分别定为14级、15级，也因此残特奥会奖牌数远多于全运会。

本届分级中心设在广东奥林匹克体育中心体育场东区，将为广州赛区6个项目及广东赛区4个项目的视力、听力、智力运动员提供分级服务，60名分级师将在此开展工作。广州赛区需承担780名运动员分级任务，其中分级中心约650名、分级点约130名。前期已组建44人工作团队保障分级工作，筛选培训120名分级专项志愿者，其中50名在分级中心协助工作。

目前，分级中心硬件设施、临建功能房已搭建完成，环境氛围营造及分级专项器材均铺设安装到位，分级筹备工作就绪。

文、图｜记者 柳卓楠
翻译｜盛嘉
审校｜赵凡